Lord I lift Your name on high

We have reached the half way point of the trip. Unbelievable. Time is going by so quickly on this trip. No matter how much we try to do it seems as if we didn't do enough and we just didn't have enough time. Now, don't take me wrong, the trip is going great. But already we are starting to see the end of the trip and urgency is starting to set in. The pace is starting to pick up. There is still so much we would like to do and time is starting to run short.

Sunday morning. Clear skies with traditional heat and humidity. The days until now have been cool and plesant, today it was down right hot. No problem, we were prepared for it and actually are looked forward to it. Everone dressed in Sunday church attire (all the ladies had closed toed shoes and I was sooooooo proud!)as we loaded the bus. Today we went to Los Pinos for worship service. Los Pinos is a great village community that Torch has been working for the past 2 years. The congregation there is growing and healthy with about 100 adults and 120 children. I am pretty sure most of them were there today, we had a full house, standing room only. We had a wonderful bi-lingual worship assembly. One of the most moving moments was when the children sang "This is the day" in English. Man, I am getting goose bumps right now as I am writing this note. After services we went to the classrooms and passed out some toys and stuffed animals to the kids. Lots of pictures, hugs, and smiles today!

After church services we went to eat at Camparos and then headed out to Valley of Angels to get ready for the VBS/ gospel meeting. Carlos Toledo, the local preacher there, met us at the site that the new church building is being built. Timeteo has already made big strides on the foundation. Huge footers have been dug and giant stones have been placed and concreted into place. It was pretty exciting to visualize the building being completed at the site. The goal is to have the building completed by the end of July.

Our VBS/gospel meeting was going to be at the church building site. However, rain (have I mentioned that it has rained down here???)interfered with our outdoor plans. Thankfully a new house is being built next door to the property and the owner allowed us to use the facility. The adults met on the Torch bus and the children met in the house. Of course, the house is not finished and water leaked in from just about everywhere but at least we were not directly in the down pour. We sang a few songs in Spanish with the kids and had a great skit covering serval key characters of the Old Testement. John Wallace, from south Florida, was a giant tree with huge leaves coming out of his collar and shirt sleeves. He was the favorite for sure. The line of the day was from Steve Kemp during the skit. As Noah, Steve was suppose to say, "grande Bote'(great boat) but actually said, "grande boca (big mouth)!" Oops! Now you see why I have such great trouble with Spanish. One little slip and look what you could say!

As soon as VBS ended the rain stopped (what timing) and we wrapped up the day by heading over to Santa Lucia. We ate dinner at the restaurant at the hotel and was entertained with karoke performances from the locals (not the best I have ever heard) and our own Katie Gooch, Phillip Jenkins, and Dillon Hines. Not to brag, but they were really good. And we could understand the words too! After dinner we had a singing devo at the church there. The church building was built in 1533 and is the oldest church building in the western hemisphere. Most of the building is still completely original right down to the wooden pegs (there are no nails in the building). What a great way to end the day.

We returned to the Mission House filled to the brim with wonderful memories of the day. Tomorrrow will be a big day for the team. We are going to begin work at 6:00 AM because we have a big agenda planned. Goodnight to all, hope you sleep as good as we will! Blessings.

TR